Notices by atomicpoet (atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org), page 6

One of the greatest tricks companies use to justify high valuations is to convince potential investors that they’re a tech company.

We saw this with Juicero. We saw this with WeWork.

And I suspect that this is the case – to an obscene degree – with Tesla.

At the end of the day, Tesla is a car company with an energy side hustle.

Elon Musk might be talking about full self-driving, A.I., and robotaxis, but he has yet to deliver a tangible product based on any of those things. Until Tesla makes something that works, it is an automotive company and should be treated as an automotive company.

All day, I’ve been at an urgent care centre trying to get my daughter help with a cough—which hasn’t gone away for more than a month.

It’s been a long, long day.

I just made myself a nice bowl of soup.

I have this habit of procrastinating over things I enjoy.

For example, I love Earl Grey tea. I haven’t had Earl Grey tea in months. Every day, I say, “I’d like Earl Grey tea”—but I never make it.

So I’m making an Earl Grey tea. Partially, it’s because I feel guilty about my procrastination. Even my enjoyment has a caveat.

I’m not an American, but my advice to American progressives is simply this:

Now’s your chance. If you don’t help elect the first African American woman to the Presidency, you’re full of shit.

That woman is your only chance to save American democracy, so you better get behind her.

My wife would say this doesn’t look anything like her. And she’d be right. But this is generally the closest I will get in Dragon Age.

@kris It’s not paywalled to me.

And certain people say I was “implying” a conspiracy theory with my “tone”.

First off, I don’t do “read between the lines”—and it offends me when people say otherwise.

I am, however, allowed to be impressed with the series of events that happened with the CrowdStrike outage. And I think a lot of other people are too.

The link in this original thread explains exactly why the CSO of CrowdStrike sold $1.5M of stock.

If people are too lazy to read the article I provided—and opt instead to spread conspiracy theories—that’s on them, not me.

RE: https://atomicpoet.org/objects/47228e0f-7c67-4ad6-bee0-defd8f06f9ae

It’s annoying when I post a link that’s not paywalled to me, paywalled to everyone else—but I only find this out after that post goes viral.

🤣

Wow! 😲

CrowdStrike’s CSO sold $1.5M worth of stock right before the outage today!

I repeat, the Chief Security Officer sold $1.5M worth of stock!

https://www.barrons.com/articles/crowdstrike-insiders-sold-stock-cac5e509?siteid=yhoof2

I just discovered that the U.S. Army is one of the oldest video game developers ever.

In 1960, they developed LOGSIM-WC, and it is something else:

LOGSIM-WC (Logistical Simulation Wholesale Computer-assisted) is a serious game used by the US Army as a simulation for logistics. The game is intended to be played by higher administration, senior officers and civilians involved in the supply chain. The game simulates the operation of a National Inventory Control Point and measures the effectiveness of the supply by the players.

It ran on an IBM RAMAC-305 and had multiplayer aupport for up to eight players.

Interesting thing is that this isn’t the only game the U.S. Army has made. They made a whole series of FPS games called America’s Army that was used for recruitment.

Microsoft just fired its DEI team.

What’s amazing is this quote from one of their team leads:

True systems-change work associated with DEI programs everywhere are no longer business critical or smart as they were in 2020.

Basically, this was all just performative.

https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-layoffs-dei-leader-email-2024-7

Over the past 10 years, I’ve learned a lot about autism.

This is because my daughter was diagnosed with autism, something she likely inherited from me because she has most of my personality “quirks”.

Autism is not a template. There is no uniform form of autism. It can vary widely.

My daughter teaches me this every day. She loves to laugh. She loves to draw. She especially loves music.

She also has wonderful special interests and tells me about them every day.

What’s the point in assassinating Trump?

That would make him a martyr.

Preferably, he should die in prison like the felon he is.

In 2021, Valve only had 336 employees.

https://litter.catbox.moe/t239fi.jpg

Shelley Duvall just died.

While most people know her from The Shining, my fondest memory was her singing the song “He Needs Me” in Popeye.

And that song was also featured prominently in the film Punch Drunk Love starring Adam Sandler. It was written by Harry Nilsson too.

But Shelley’s voice is what really makes the song.

https://youtu.be/qAFgj8mqPk0

My neighbour watched me down five Heinekens in one sitting, then watched me do push-ups and jog around the block.

He told me that he was impressed I could hold my liquor like that.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him the beer was non-alcoholic. 😆

Let me explain what’s going on with Atari.

There’s a misconception that Atari is Infrogrames. In reality, Infrogrames hasn’t been Atari since 2013. That’s when Atari emerged from bankruptcy and was bought by Ker Ventures.

Ker Ventures was owned by Frederic Chesnais who used to be the COO and CFO of Infogrames but left in 2007 to buy Microprose.

Chesnais had very little interest in Atari as a video game publisher. Instead, he was obsessed with the brand and sought to leverage it for hotels, casinos, and crypto. He was so little interested in Atari’s video game business that he essentially sold as much of Atari’s IP as he could. More on this in a moment.

That said, Chesnais did one thing right, and that was move Atari back into the video game console market with the crowd-funded Ataribox – later known as the VCS.

In 2020, a company known as Ziggurat Interactive bought a huge portfolio of IP from Atari. This company was founded by a fellow named Wade Rosen.

That same year, Wade Rosen bought a substantial amount of shares from Ker Ventures and became the Chairman of Atari.

At this point, Atari split into two companies: Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain. Atari Gaming was run by Wade Rosen and Atari Blockchain was run by Chesnais.

Then in 2022, Atari Gaming essentially cut ties with Atari Blockchain as well as with Chesnais. They virtually disavowed their NFTs, known as Atari Token, and disclaimed it as “unlicensed”.

In 2023, a new entity known as Irata – which is Atari spelled backwards – acquired all shares that were owned by Ker Ventures. Irata became the majority and controlling shareholder of Atari.

Who owns Irata? Wade Rosen.

The same year that Irata bought Atari, they went on an acquisition spree. They bought Nightdive Studios, Digital Eclipse, AtariAge, M Network, MobyGames, and the Stern Electronics catalog.

This year, they bought the Intellivision brand and catalog to boot.

The question is, “Why?”

Well, remember the Ziggurat Interactive, the other company Rosen owns?

For the past decade, they’ve bought a host of video game IP: BloodRayne, Enclave, A Boy and His Blob, etc. And what they did was license their IP to indie developers like Nightdive Studios who would either to a reboot or remake.

Well, Ziggurat Interactive is only publishing one game this year. And who is making that game?

Nightdive Studios.

Nightdive Studios – an Atari subsidiary – is developing a game owned by Ziggurat Interactive, a company that happens to be owned by Atari CEO Wade Rosen.

That game is Killing Time Resurrected.

Now what’s the purpose of all this? Ziggurat Interactive and Atari are following the same playbook:

1. Release old video game franchises
2. Remaster them
3. Re-imagine them
4. Make sequels

This is exactly what’s happened with System Shock. The original game was re-released to work on modern hardware. It then gets a big remaster. And rumours now abound that a System Shock III is in development.

How many games does Ziggurat Interactive and Atari collectively own? Currently, I count 300+ games that are currently available now.

“But wait,” you’re asking, “Who the hell would be interested in some of these obscure titles that have been dormant for decades?”

Mostly, it’s indie developers. The folks making most of these Atari games are essentially indie developers in search of a franchise. They want some sort of IP that’s recognizable because developing new IP is hard.

15,000 new games are released on Steam each year, and anything that helps an indie developer stand out from the crowd is valuable for marketing.

This explains why practically every new Atari game is made by some independent developer. Atari isn’t making these games. They’re essentially letting indies develop with their IP.